Recently, demand for flat panel displays (FPD) for liquid crystal display devices and the like, for example, has increased. A liquid crystal display device has a liquid crystal display panel in a rectangular plate shape and a backlight module as an illumination device disposed at the rear side of the liquid crystal display panel, for example (refer to Patent Document 1 and the like, for example).
The liquid crystal display panel has a rectangular plate shaped non-display area that is formed along the four peripheral sides of the panel. One side of the non-display area is a terminal region with a wide frame width. At the terminal region, a plurality of terminals are formed where one end portion of the flexible printed circuit board (FPC) is attached.
The backlight module has a rectangular plate shaped frame having a light guide plate and the like disposed on the inner side thereof. Furthermore, a liquid crystal display panel is attached and fixed to the frame of the backlight module with a double-sided tape.
In order to bond a wider area of the liquid crystal display panel and the frame, the double-sided tape is disposed on a relatively large area of the terminal region, and is provided so as to cover one whole side of the terminal region of the non-display area.
An FPC with an edge attached to the terminal region is bent at a side of the backlight module. Another end of the FPC is bonded to the rear surface of the backlight module with a double-sided tape and the like. When the FPC is bent in this manner, internal stress is generated in the region that is folded, and a restoring force is generated on the folded portion. Thus, there is a problem in which a portion of the liquid crystal display panel rises due to this restoring force of the FPC.
With a liquid crystal display device disclosed in Patent Document 1 an attempt is made to prevent the rising of the liquid crystal display panel by fixing the FPC to the frame using pins and adhesive materials. However, in the liquid crystal display device in Patent Document 1, due to one wide FPC being attached to the terminal region, the restoring force of the FPC becomes relatively large, making it difficult to prevent the rising of the liquid crystal display panel.
A known countermeasure is to divide the FPC into multiple FPCs and provide them on the terminal region. By providing a plurality of relatively narrow FPCs, it is possible to reduce the restoring force generated by each FPC. Furthermore, the manufacturing cost of the FPC can be reduced as the number of cuts of the FPC from the base material can be increased when manufacturing the FPC.